Worth it
by Somebody.smileyface
Summary: From the moment James first saw the pretty little American transfer student, it seemed like in a way, history was about to repeat itself. But was the foreigner with the extremely troubled past worth it? Why of course! But at what cost?
1. Chapter 1

**Ok, I won't be writing this disclaimer again so listen closely and know that it applies to the rest of this story. The only things that belong to me are the plot, Evelyn and some other made up characters. The rest belongs to the oh so wonderful J.K. Rowling who the whole world should bow down to because she is a queen and if you don't like Harry Potter... Well, shame on you. You need to sort out your priorities. What else... Umm constructive criticism is highly welcomed and appreciated and thanks in advance for reading. That's it I guess so enjoy!**

* * *

A small girl with big, doe like, pale green eyes fell through the barrier between the two platforms and landed heavily on the floor, her already huge eyes widening further as she did so. Seconds later a huge metal trolley also fell through and landed on top of her with a deafening crash, scattering her belongings all around her. She gasped in pain and then lay still in shock.

The whole platform stood still, everyone silently looking at the unfortunate girl. After a few minutes a kind looking man with messy black hair, emerald green eyes and round glasses looked around and then stepped forward to help the girl up, first picking the trolley off of her and then helping her to her feet. The girl then snapped out of her stupor and looked up at her rescuer gratefully.

"Th-thankyou sir." She whispered blushing wildly before shying away from him as she saw the crowd watching her. The man smiled warmly at her before turning to to look at the rest of the platform meaningfully which suddenly bustled into life, the people only stopping to glance at her occasionally.

The man turned back to her and smiled at her again. "Are you ok?" He asked her with concern before seing her nod and moved onto his next question. "What's your name?" She mumbled something incoherently, "I'm sorry, what was that?" He strained his ears to hear her better.

"Evelyn Fraser-Reiche sir." She said shyly in an odd accent. "Who are you, if you don't mind me asking?"

"My name is Harry Potter. Where are you from?" Harry asked her curiously. "You have an odd accent." She nodded.

"It does sound pretty strange, I'm originally from Ireland but we moved to America when I was 10."

"And you have no idea who I am?"

"No... I'm really sorry."

"No need to be.." He grinned "it's quite refreshing, someone not knowing me. My wife's a quidditch player you see, my family gets quite a lot of attention from that." He told her, deciding not to mention the stuff about being the chosen one. "anyway, you look new here, you're not a fist year are you?"

"No, I'm just starting... Ummm... 6th year?" She said thoughtfully, sounding a bit unsure. "I'm transferring from Salem."

"Oh!" Harry exclaimed in surprise "The Salem institute? I know of there. And you're a sixth year? I thought you were younger, my son's starting his sixth year too today. He can help you around if you like." He turned back to his family who were watching them converse from further down the platform. Evelyn meanwhile, turned back to her trolley and started to load all of her belongings onto it.

"Umm thanks for the offer Mr potter, but i think I can manage on my own. I don't want to burden anyone." She told him reluctantly, the truth was she'd love for someone to show her around but everybody had their own problems and besides, her father had always told her people didn't want to hang around with a socially incapable little weed like her.

"Nonsense!" He cried, "come on, and please, call me harry." he grabbed her newly packed trolley and pushed it towards the huge group of people waiting for them, Evelyn reluctantly followed, fearing the herd of people that awaited their arrival.

"James!" Harry addressed a painfully gorgeous, tall boy with a messy mop of black hair like his fathers and warm, chocolate brown eyes. "Come over here."

James sauntered over full of confidence and pride, occasionally winking at a few girls as he passed by. "Yes dad?" He smirked.

Harry rolled his eyes. "James this is Evelyn," he gestured to her "she's your age and starting Hogwarts this year. She's from America." James turned to look at her for the first time and gulped, his eyes went wide and his cheeks flushed pink slightly.

"Ummm..." He cleared his throat and shook his head a bit. "Hey Evvy," he said, his confidence back in full swing and his smirk once again plastered onto his face "I must say it is an absolute pleasure to meet you." He said flirtily, holding his hand out.

"James." His father warned shaking his head at him. James rolled his eyes at him but turned back around to Evelyn with an apologetic look.

"Sorry, truthfully though, it's nice to meet you" he said genuinely. Evelyn took his hand reluctantly and shook it.

"Um you too." She smiled shyly, quickly retracting her hand and looking back down at the ground.

"So you're from America? You don't really sound American to be honest, hang on are you Irish? You sound Irish." He shouted excitedly, she nodded slowly. "Yes! I knew it! Anyway, is it nice in America? What's the food like? I didn't even realise there was a magic school there! Where were you taught? Did you go to that Comicon thing? Was it fun? Hang on if you're American what are you doing at Hogwarts? Are you transferring? How cool! Hang on what state are you from?" He questioned eagerly all in one breath before looking thoughtful at his last question as if he thought he should have asked that first.

Evelyn just stood there with her mouth slightly agape, looking like a rabbit caught in the headlights. Suddenly a female voice shouted across the platform.

"Harry! James dear! 5 minutes till you all have to be on the train!" They all turned to see a woman with bright red hair waving them over.

"Umm, Thankyou Mr Potter, for your help. Uh maybe I'll see you around James... Bye!" She said quietly before wheeling her trolley off to the train.

Harry and James looked on in amusement as she stood next to the open doorway with her hands on her hips and her head cocked to the side in contemplation before going around to the front of the trolley, lifting the front bit of it onto the train before going around it again and lifting the back of the trolley above her head and successfully tipping all of her many bags and trunks into the luggage car on the train. She then let the trolley fall and pushed it behind her, wincing apologetically as it crashed into someone's owl before standing back and dusting her hands off, looking genuinely proud of her handiwork. She then went further down the train and hopped on board, disappearing through the doors.

"James," his dad told him "don't tell her that there was a conductor to do that for her". James just shook his head in amazement. "Come on, let's go say bye to your mother." James nodded before running over to the red haired witch giving her a peck on the cheek and running back away shouting his goodbyes over his shoulder before following Evelyn at a run.

"Harry?" Said the red head.

"Yes Ginny?" He replied looking at his 3 children jumping onto the train.

"Who was that, the girl that James followed like a puppy just then?" Ginny asked with a smirk.

Harry sighed worriedly. "That was Evelyn Fraser-Reiche."

She gasped. "Fraser-Reiche? As in..." She looked at her husbands nod of conformation before wringing her hands in concern. "Oh the poor girl!"

"We're doing all we can back in the Auror office, but we need the help of the American authorities before we can go any further... However it seems they don't want to reply to my letters, or they are not getting them." He murmured darkly.

"Well hopefully this gets sorted soon, we can talk more at home. Look the train's leaving!" She mumbled, plastering a huge smile onto her face.

"Ok." Harry agreed, doing the same and waving at his children as they disappeared into the distance. Just then he spotted something on the ground and walked over to pick it up and chuckled to himself as he pocketed it.

In his rush to follow Evelyn, oldest son had dropped his wand. He shook his head in amusement, he was sure his old transfiguration professor would have a good laugh about this.


	2. Chapter 2

Evelyn's POV

I strode down the corridors of the train looking for a compartment and I was just about to give up and sit with a bunch of first years when I heard the sound of heavy running behind me.

"Evvy! Hey Evvy, wait! Where are you going?" A familiar male voice shouted from behind her, a large hand landing on her shoulder not long afterwards. I whipped around to face James at great speed, sending my long braid flying and hitting him in the face with a loud slap. It was then I realised that the hair band had came out of the bottom and the braid had started to unravel.

"I'm so so sorry!" I gasped as he started to choke and spit out huge amounts of fine, silky, strawberry blonde hair out of his mouth. It was when he started to go blue in the face that I realised I needed to take action. I ripped my wand out of my back pocket and pointed it at his throat screaming "Anapneo!" in a state of sheer panic. Shortly after doing so, I realised it was a good thing I had my american citizenship, I'd heard that you couldn't use your wand outside of Hogwarts if you were the age of 17, in America you could do so from the age of 13.

Still choking and pulling fistfuls of it out of his face he said "Thanks. Your hair smells really good you know, like lemon sherbet or something." He grinned after she could see his face. "There's quite a bit of it isn't there, maybe you should keep that tied up nicely for any future encounters with poor unsuspecting souls who aren't anticipating a wave of hair to slap them in the face." He smirked mischievously.

"I'm sorry." I said looking at my feet. I was so stupid, I had choked him, now he'd never be my friend willingly, and nobody else would either once they had realised what I had done to him. I was such a bad person, I probably hurt him. Oh my god, what if I did hurt him? What if he had died from choking? Why would he want me around now? I should just go before I made things worse. "I really am sorry" I whispered "I'll completely understand if you want me to go now." I said before turning to leave.

"No no no! Evvy!" He cried grasping my shoulders and tugging me around to face me. Was he going to get back at me now? Well I shouldn't be surprised I deserve it. "I was joking. Look at me!" He ordered and I did so, looking into his eyes with fear, expecting to see a look of hard, cold hatred. But I didn't I saw a soft, warm expression on his face and was that guilt? No it couldn't be, he hadn't done anything. "It's ok! Why do you think I want you to leave?"

"Umm, because I made you choke? Because I hurt you? I don't know." I felt close to tears.

"No you didn't, it's ok these things happen. Don't get so worked up about it. It's fine." He said kindly. "Why do you think that anyway?"

I knew exactly why I felt that way. But I wasn't going to think about it, not again. I was safe here. I decided not to answer and I looked down.

"Ok you don't have to tell me, not if you don't want to. But just know that although you've only just met me, I already consider you a friend, and the rest of us will adore you too. But they can't do that unless you come with me now can they?"

"I don't understand why though. You don't have to invite me in just because your dad said so. I'll completely understand if you want to ditch me." I told him, perplexed about why he was being so nice.

"That's ridiculous, do I look like the type of person to do whatever my dad tells me to? I want to show you around because I want us to be friends!"

"Really?" I asked him unsurely, wrapping my hair around my fist in a nervous manner.

"Yes!" He cried exasperatedly, rolling his eyes and finally grinning happily at my submission. He threw his arm around my shoulder, squeezed me in some type of brief hug before dragging me down the corridor to the other end of the train, only stopping when my waist length hair got caught in one of the doors. Ugh I hate my hair.

::::

Lily POV

My idiot brother burst into the compartment, announcing his presence to the world by flinging his arms up and shouting his greetings.

"Good day to you, little sister, and you, my friendliest of friends," he addressed Fred "and to everybody that dwells in this moving cabin on its way to our home away from home!" He grinned, completely amused with himself, only made worse by Fred sniggering along.

I rolled my eyes, less than amused. "Shut up you annoying arse, a simple hi would have done."

"Awww, love you too Lils!" He said sweetly, smirking before attacking me in a big, unsuspected bear hug, crushing me half to death.

"Ugh, get off me you big ape."I growled. I heard Roxanne speak to someone who had followed James to the door, probably one of his fan club, I'm glad I wasn't the one dealing with whoever it was. Both James and Al had a bunch of brainless giggling girls that followed them round everywhere they went trying to snag a kiss or even a date. James's was bigger than Al's because of Al's studious, rule following nature and so we had more problems with the JBF (James's Brainless Followers/Fanclub) than the ABF (same for Al.) I even caught 3 of the JBFs following my brother into the men's bathroom to get his autograph once. I haven't seen them go within a 10ft radius since.

"Excuse me? Yes you. This compartment is for family and friends only. Scram." She said with hostility.

"Oh..." A small, female voice murmured timidly "I guess I can go if you want me to-"

"Yes go now. Or I'll make you." Roxy growled menacingly.

"Oi!" James shouted at Roxy having just realised what was going on "I invited her, she's staying." He growled, all traces of joking gone from his face.

"No it's ok," the other voice spoke quickly "really I can sit with the first years, it's fine." She said earnestly, but I could hear sadness in her voice.

"No it's not ok, we've been through this and you're staying here." My brother said confidently.

"Yes it is, look there's not enough seats!" She mumbled shyly. James was in the way so I couldn't see her so I mouthed silently to Rose sitting opposite me and asked who it was. She just shrugged her shoulders. So it wasn't one of the usuals then, not that I thought it was, James never took any notice of the others let alone defend them against his family.

"Then I'm sitting on the floor" the stubborn heap in front of me said. Never had I seen him be so sweet and chivalrous to another human being before, I was shocked to say the least. "Now come in and sit down." He ordered, patting the seat next to me before plonking himself down at my feet." As the girl shuffled timidly into the compartment I immediately saw why James had been acting so oddly, and everyone else's faces, well, apart from Roxy who was looking sullen and put out, conveyed my thoughts exactly. She was bloody gorgeous.

Height wise she was a little on the short side, around my height and I was 13, I'm guessing she was a similar age to James though. Despite her shortness on the whole, she had long legs which were slim and toned, much like the rest of her body. Her outfit was to die for, it was clear she had an impeccable sense of style. She wore a matching set of top and bottoms, the top was a tight, cropped T-shirt and the bottoms were high waisted shorts. Both were a pale cornflower blue with swirling patterns of and even paler blue creating a faint tie dye effect. Sewn along the bottom hems of each piece was a white band of crochet material covering up her midriff and more of her thighs, making the outfit more modest. On her feet we'd dainty little white converse trainers.

From the neck up she was even more perfect. her slender neck led up to a face with flawless slightly golden brown skin, a perfect jawline, high, prominent cheekbones and a perfectly straight, narrow nose. Her eyebrows were full and arched perfectly and her mouth was small, though her lips were full and slightly pouty. The most recognisable thing about her though was her eyes. They were huge and doe like, framed with long, thick, dark lashes but it was the colour that was odd, they were green, but not a snotty kind of green like most people's, or even an emerald green like mine, Al's and dad's. They were a strange shade of pale mint green with a ring of darker mint green around the edges.

The only thing about her that made her look even remotely human was her wavy, strawberry blonde hair that she had tried, and failed to put into a plait. Half of it was unraveled and tangled at the bottom and bits were falling out, framing her face. All in all she would make a lot of girls jealous, she could even give Victorie and Dominique a run for their money and they were part veela. But I wasn't the jealous type, so I sent a huge friendly grin at her. She gratefully accepted my grin and sent a sheepish one back at me, asking with her eyes if it was really ok to sit next to me. I just rolled my eyes, got up and pulled her down into the seat by her arm. She just sat there looking like a confused foal, her wide eyes blinking confusedly.

"Hey, I'm down here, not up there!" shouted James, breaking the silence and stares as he realised the girl was uncomfortable. The girl giggled cutely next to me, not an annoying girly giggle or a flirty giggle, but a genuine laugh. Sheesh, even her laugh was perfect. I imagined her sneezes would sound like a baby panda or something. My brother looked up at the sound and grinned, a strange unknown emotion reaching his eyes.

I decided to break the now awkward silence. "So ummm, I'm Lily. What's your name?" I asked, giving her a friendly smile.

"Evelyn. It's nice to meet you." She answered, blushing as all the attention was returned to her. We all waited for her to say something else, like her year group or something, though I was pretty sure I had never seen her at Hogwarts before in my life, I would of recognised her if I had. She didn't say anything anything else though and just looked extremely uncomfortable with all the attention so I turned to James to elaborate.

"Oh, right, Evvy's just joining sixth year, she's transferring from a school in America... At least, that's what dad said."

"There's a school in America?" I asked dumbly, I'd never heard of another magic school apart from Durmstrang and Beaxbatons... Though now I thought about it I realised there must have been wizarding schools all over the world, I doubt any of my second favourite quidditch team, the Woollongong warriors from Australia, had ever set foot in Hogwarts. Suddenly I felt stupid for not even thinking about it.

"I said the same thing!" James cried loudly. Clearly my brother was as stupid as I was.

Suddenly Rose, who was sitting quietly in the corner reading a book, piped up. "Oh, did you go to the Salem witches institute? The one in Massachusetts?"

"Yes!" Evelyn spoke up, her eyes lighting up with excitement. "How do you know about it?"

"Well... I spend half of my life in the library and I came across a book once with a list of different magic institutions across the world. Salem looked interesting so I read more into it. It looked like a really good school, why would you want to move to Hogwarts after 5 years? I mean no offence or anything, I'm just curious." Wow Rose, way to put it bluntly.

"Oh... Well," Evelyn mumbled, lost for words before carrying on "it was a family thing really. I was born in Ireland but when my mother... Died when I was 10 we decided to move to America. And I was only at Salem for 2 years because I was home schooled for a while after moving... And I just decided that 5 years was long enough away and, umm, I at least wanted to go to the place mum got schooled... So, umm, yeah." She sounded a bit unsure as she said this, almost as if she was lying. I didn't think she was the type of person to lie though so I just put it down to being nervous.

"Well," Rose answered a bit awkwardly "I'm sure you'll love it here too. I'm Rose Weasley by the way, I'm in 4th year."

"Thanks, it's nice to meet you."

"Mine and James's brother, Albus is in 4th year too, though he's off with his friend, Scorpius. I'm in 2nd year, with Lucy, Hugo and Roxy." I told her pointing at each individual in turn.

"Right," James butted in "that's Fred, he's in our year and he's Roxy's older brother." He told her, eyeing Roxy warily who was looking extremely guilty from being so mean to the girl. "And that's Molly, Lucy's sister, and she's in 7th year." He gestured to an older looking blonde boy next to him on the floor. "This is Louis, he's in 7th year too. He's got two older sisters who've already left. Hugo is rose's brother and obviously me Lils and Al are siblings, we're all cousins. Get it?" He asked the very confused looking mint green eyed witch who just nodded uneasily. It was clear she didn't get it one bit, but of course my brother wouldn't notice, the daft sausage.

"Right so that's that then. On to more important things like... Your outfit! Where did you get those clothes?"

"Oh," she said, caught off guard. "These? I made them." She said, her cheeks flushing pink.

"Made them?" I asked her shocked, she was so talented!

"Yeah." She mumbled.

"You're joking aren't you?" James asked her, gaping at her in disbelief.

"Umm, no?" She mumbled again, looking down at her feet in embarrassment "We're a bit short on money at the moment and I couldn't afford new ones. I got these for my birthday." She said, tapping the toes of her converse together.

"Oh no no, I don't care about that. I meant they were good. Really good. How on earth did you do it?" James stared right into her eyes, compelling her to tell him. Something wasn't right here, James never payed attention to anything, but here he was, hanging off every single syllable she uttered from her lips. And he seemed to genuinely care about her too, which was also odd, it usually took him ages to trust somebody.

"Oh, um, ever since I was a kid I always made my dolls dresses and clothes because I got bored of the ones they were wearing, and eventually I just figured I could make them bigger. It's easier with magic though."

"That's cute. Making dolls clothes, why did I never think of that?" Rose asked. With aunt hermione as a mother, she'd grown up with an understanding of the muggle world, and she'd always grown up with dolls to play with like muggle dolls. Dad had brought me some once, but the next day he found them smashing through a window when I tried to give them an experience of flying. He didn't buy me any more.

"Cute?" Evelyn asked distastefully as James sniggered.

"Yeah, that you didn't ask your parents for the clothes. when I was little, whatever I wanted for my little dollies, I got. Dad couldn't stand me crying so he just got me stuff to shut me up." She laughed, the whole compartment chuckled heartily along with her. "Though having them did help with my hairdressing skills, I'm pretty good at doing hair now, I even got mums hair to lie straight once. I got rewarded for that." Yes, that was quite the feat, but she never managed to even come close to taming my hair.

"Hey. I never played with dolls and I'd say my skills are alright. It's not easy to make my hair even this presentable every day, even though it still looks like I've been dragged through a bush." I gestured to my tightly plaited red mane, I had pieces of it sticking up everywhere, even coming undone from the plait at the back of my head and I don't even want to mention my fringe. Unfortunately me and my brothers had inherited the potter hair type from dad, and nothing, I mean nothing, had ever come close to getting it to lie flat every morning, but I found out that by plaiting it I looked just presentable enough to belong in society. There was no hope for James and Al though, however I had noticed James actually liked looking like he had just been electrocuted and ran his hand through it to make it worse every minute of the day. "I wish my hair was like yours." I addressed Evelyn.

"Oh this?" She said holding up her half undone, tangled, insanely long plait. "No you don't, it's a nightmare to brush honestly, and by the time I've finished plaiting it my arms are sore and achy."

"Oh yeah, and plus it hurts when it hits you in the face... And gets stuck in things like compartment doors." He smirked at her, looking her directly in the eyes. I sniggered with amusement, he had been hit in the face?

"I'm really sorry." She looked at the floor guiltily.

"I told you, it doesn't matter!" My brother laughed. "What were we talking about? Oh yeah. Your hair can't be that hard to brush, have you ever tried combing this wondrous thing atop my head? It takes blood sweat and tears to make it look this awesome everyday." James boasted, running his hand through his hair, making it stick up even more. Great, so he was still full of himself as usual. The whole room snorted, apart from Evelyn who just stared at him in a kind of amused, horror fuelled shock. "What? Don't you like it?" He asked her worriedly, patting it down." Wow. I thought I would never see the day...

"How about a bet, dear cousin of mine?" Freddie asked, leaning forward. This would be good.

"About what?" He turned around to stare at him, utterly perplexed, then again I was confused too.

"12 galleons says you won't be able to do a hairstyle that Roxy picks out for you on Ev." He grinned.

"Go on then. What do you want me to do?" He challenged. Roxy grinned, showing him an image on her muggle phone.

"This is the 5 strand Dutch braid, it's not actually that hard."

At first my brother looked scared, but as he scrutinised it, a smile slowly made his way to his face. "Easy. Of course I can do that!" Here he was again, the cocky bastard.

"Why don't you try it then Jamesie poo?" I sniggered at his scowl he sent at me.

"I will. Evvy," James called, catching her attention "can I sit there please?" He pointed to where she was sitting. Oh dear. It seems Voldemort's heart had just melted. James potter never said please.

"Uhhh, sure?" Evelyn, who had no idea what was going on, said questioningly, getting up from her seat so James could jump into it.

"Thanks. You sit there." He pointed to the floor in front of his legs.

"Umm, why?"

"Oh, I'm going to plait your hair." He saw that she was about to speak so he shouted over the top of her "nope! No questions, just sit." And she did so, with an utterly bewildered look on her face. Molly cast a cushioning charm where she was sitting before leaning back to watch it with a smile and the rest of the compartment followed suit.

Evelyn pulled the tie out of her hair and undid the rest of the plait, letting it fall around her in a big wave. From her seated position the hair dragged on the floor a bit due to the fact it was so long, it was also incredibly shiny and soft looking. It fell naturally in gorgeous, tousled, beachy waves, unlike mine which was just a tangled mess of fire engine red hair. For a couple of hours, everybody conversed animatedly between ourselves, we all got to know quite a bit about Evelyn, and though I had some suspicions that she wasn't telling us something important, I realised I seriously envied this girl. And while I mulled over that thought in my head, I drifted off into deep sleep.

::::

Nobody's POV

About 4 hours later the whole compartment was sleeping soundly. Rose had moved into a horizontal position, her heavy book open on top of her face and her legs over Fred and Roxanne, who were leaning against each other, Fred snoring hideously. Hugo had fallen off of his seat and was now lying spread eagled on the floor. On the opposite side of the compartment, Molly slept alongside her sister Lucy, whose head had fallen onto her older siblings lap. James sat next to the two sisters, his head resting on his own sisters shoulder, who had her own face pressed against the cold window. On the floor, Louis was sitting against the wall, his head nodding every now and again and the last occupant of the compartment, Evelyn, was still nestled in between James' outstretched legs, curled up into a ball with her cheek resting on his knee. Everything was peaceful, no movement, no noise, well, apart from Fred's obnoxious snoring of course.

Suddenly, the silence was shattered by a terrified scream as Evelyn started to shriek and thrash about wildly, making the whole compartment jolt awake with a start. A few of them yawning and looking around bleary eyed and the rest whipping out their wands. It was pitch black outside and for some reason the lights had been put out inside. The screams subsided but James still felt movement at his feet.

"Evvy?" He mumbled and the entire compartment was silent for a minute until they herd sounds of heavy gasping from the floor "Evvy!" He cried worriedly and dropped to the floor next to her, his hand searching for her shoulders and shaking them forcefully when he found them "Evvy wake up!"

"Lumos!" Gasped Louis, lighting his wand tip and bathing the room in a slight glow. Everyone could now see what was happening a bit clearer. On the floor, Evelyn lay, gripping her throat and kicking her legs slightly as if she couldn't breathe. Everybody started to shout at once, telling her to wake up and asking what was going on. Molly, now shocked out of her sleepy stupor started to say spells, including things like rictumsempera and auguamenti until she shouted one in panic that worked

"Rennervate!" She roared, effectively waking Evelyn from her nightmare who sat up with a jolt, coughing and spluttering and trying to get as much air into her lungs as possible. James threw his arms around her as her wide eyes started to water.

"Shhhh, it's ok." He consoled her, patting her back as tears started to wet the t shirt on his shoulder. Evelyn just sat there awkwardly, looking around suspiciously, as if something was amiss before starting to look around more frantically, pushing James away. "What?" He asked worriedly.

"Why has the train stopped?" She asked, her eyes becoming even larger. Everyone went silent again and when they indeed realised that the Hogwarts express had stopped. Louis put his wand to the window and strained his eyes to see through the dark.

"Crap!" He muttered. "We're at the platform."

"What?" Gasped James "We're here?" He pressed his nose up against the window. "Well shit. We better get going."

"James!" Cried rose who looked panicky "we're not even in our robes. We can't go into Hogwarts without our robes on, McGonnagal will have a fit!"

"Well we can't be that late," Fred spoke, trying to calm everyone down "I mean wouldn't the train have started heading home already if we were? We can just put our robes on on the way there." That's when the train lurched suddenly and started to move forward, slowly gaining speed. Everyone looked at each other in horror and kept into action, grabbing their travel bags and all their stuff they had left lying around and left their compartment, sprinting towards the front of the train to stop the drivers. Quickly after bursting through the door to the drivers place though, they realised there might be a problem. "Whaddya know, the Hogwarts express doesn't have a driver"

"Wow... I wonder what spell does this." Breathed James, him and Fred distracted as usual.

"Shut up you idiots!" Lily snapped at them both "We have to get off the train. Now."

"We'll have to jump!" Said James bravely, swinging open one of the cabin doors "come on, we have to do it now or it'll be dangerous" he then jumped, rolling when he hit the floor. One by one all others present followed suit.

"Head count!" Cried Molly, quickly counting everyone there. "Oh no, someone's missing... ROSE!" She shouted "where are you?"

"Help me!" Someone shouted from the train that was rushing away from them speedily, it was now going too fast for anyone to jump off.

Thinking quickly, Louis performed the first spell that came to mind "Aresto Momentum!" The train began to decelerate enough so rose could jump off, and she made her way towards the rest of the group, almost buckling under the weight of the stack of books she carried. When she reached them, she began to pack them into her small bag.

"I always told you books were good for nothing!" Shouted James over the heavy rain hammering down on them that had started to fall at some point in the journey. Everyone laughed at him, the mood of the group lifting significantly as rose glared playfully at him.

"James?" Evelyn mumbled shyly again as she realised she was in a group situation again.

"Yeah?"

"What are we going to do about school?" She mumbled.

"Oh, shit, yeah I forgot. Errrr I don't know?"

"We might be able to make it if we run now!" Hugo piped in, pulling his rucksack over his back.

"Um yeah, good plan sprout." Fred said, ruffling his hair before getting ready to run, the rest of the group did the same thing before nodding at each others and sprinting towards Hogwarts. By the time they saw the gate, their hair was plastered to their face, they were all soaked and most of them were breathing heavily, doing all they could to keep running and stay on their feet.

They were doing well, however in the distance they saw the gates close and their tiny professor start walking towards the castle. "PROFESSOR! PROFESSOR FLITWICK!" They all started to scream at the top of their lungs, trying to get his attention. But the old professor couldn't hear them over the sounds of the howling wind and the crashing rain and as they reached the gate they saw the tiny man slip inside, the heavy oak doors to the castle closing with a huge bang behind him."

"Shit!" James swore loudly.


	3. Chapter 3

About 2 hours later, everyone stood looking up at the towering gate hopelessly. The rain had still not let up, but had now got worse and beat down mercilessly on everybody, of which quite a few of them had gone blue and shivery. They had long ago put on their outer robes to keep them warm but those too had been thoroughly soaked by the disastrous weather.

"Maybe if we-" Rose started before being interrupted by a very frustrated James.

"No! Everything you've suggested doesn't work!" He groaned, pushing his sopping hair out of his eyes.

"What about Hogsmeade? You know, the secret passages dad told us about?" Lily inquired hopefully.

"Won't work. The one through the Hogs head is useless because we don't even know where the room of requirement is, besides, you heard dad, it probably got destroyed by that fire, that, or the fires still going. And we can't go through Honeydukes either. That got sealed off before the battle." James sighed morosely.

"Plus," Fred added "we can't go through the whomping willow, aunt hermione made sure that passageway had been sealed off too."

"Well, it is dangerous." Rose said airily. "I would've done the same, and besides, what about uncle George's shop? He could get help for us."

"Dad's staying at grandma Molly's for the night, the shop'll be locked up" Roxy chimed in, shivering slightly with her robes wrapped around her tightly. She wasn't nearly as bad as Evelyn though, who was now turning slightly purple while shaking uncontrollably.

"Hey what about the Three broomsticks?" Louis asked thoughtfully "I mean, I know that underage wizards aren't allowed in past Hogsmeade hours but... I don't know, I suppose me and Molls could go in and ask if she has some blankets or something?"

"P-pl-please? it's w-worth a t-t-try" Evelyn whispered through violently chattering teeth, cuddling up to Hugo and Lucy who were almost suffering the same as her.

"C'mon we need to do something!" Shouted James over the roaring thunder that had now rolled in. He tugged Evvy and Lily up from their spots on the floor and sheltered them under his arms, screaming for the others to do the same and they started to steadily jog back towards the train station to take an alternative route to Hogsmeade because the other was on the other side of the school.

The rain, now hailstones, continued to hammer down on them without regret and the thunder was now louder and rumbled for longer periods of time, lighting occasionally lighting up the sky and creating eerie flashes throughout the woods on either side of them, and just as they could see the station clearly through the heavy sheets of hail and fog a bolt of electricity crashed into a huge tree beside them and quickly started to fall. Sprinting now the gang only just made it out of harms way before the massive tree crashed to the floor, shaking the ground slightly. Each of them casting panicked looks at each other they all made noises of horror before they broke into a sprint again, this time running for their lives.

They had reached Hogsmeade in record time, only giving the completely empty streets a quick glance before charging towards the only building with a light on on the far end of the street but just as they were about to crash though the door, it slammed shut right in their faces.

"No underage wizards allowed!" The ratty puppet heads started to yabber and squawk, "Clear off! You're not welcome!"

"Stay here," Molly rolled her eyes "I'll just be a second." And with that she pushed the door open and walked swiftly inside, moments later she came out with the elderly barkeeper, Rosmerta, who took one look at the miserable bunch and cried out in shock.

"Oh! My poor dears! Come in, come in, I'll take you up to some rooms to dry off in and bring you up some butter beers. What on earth were you doing outside in this weather? You should probably be thankful you're still alive!" She scolded in a motherly tone while grabbing their arms and hauling them upstairs. She unlocked a big room at the far end of the corridor and ushered them all inside. "ESSIE!" She roared, "WE NEED A BARREL OF BUTTERBEER AND... One, two three... TEN GLASSES UPSTAIRS PLEASE!" She looked around and noticed for the first time what a bad state they were actually in and even gasped in fear when she saw Evelyn. "Oh no, how did I not notice? We need blankets, blankets blankets blankets." she opened one of the cupboards and pulled out a few huge, thick woollen blankets before grabbing the shaking girl and pulling her to her feet. "Come on now, take this off," she murmured pulling off the freezing cold, soggy Hogwarts robe "you're as blue as your clothes dear, that's it now wrap this tightly around you, everyone else do the same!" She exclaimed hurling blankets at everyone.

"Thanks, 'Merta." James breathed shakily, stripping his robe off and wrapping the fleecy blanket around him before going over to Evelyn and pulling her into a hug, which she didn't look too comfortable with but didn't protest as James was actually radiating warmth. "Nowhere else was open."

"Why were you out there in the first place? Shouldn't you be in school?"

"Well... Yes," Louis told her slowly "but we missed the carriages and the gates were closed by the time we got there."

"Missed the carriages? Even the last one?" She questioned skeptically.

"Yeah... Nobody woke us up on the train and it was just starting to move before we got off it." Fred explained grumpily.

"Yeah, and when we went to tell the driver to stop the train, there was no one there! Apparently the Hogwarts express doesn't have a driver!"

"No driver? Who would of thought..." Just at that moment there was a knock at the door and a young, pretty, blonde haired witch came through the door lugging a barrel of Butterbeer along with her. On her arms were trays of empty glass tankards, all balanced precariously on top of each other. "Ah, you brought them, Thankyou very much Essie. Here, everyone, take a glass!" She smiled, filling each tankard and handing them out to everybody. They all took one and started to drink, content smiles appearing on their faces one by one as the warmth from the Butterbeer spread through their bodies. "And you my dear?" She offered a glass to Evelyn.

"No thankyou," She said sleepily, yawning like a kitten and snuggling further into James's side, seeming to forget it was James. "I don't really... Like Butterbeer." She yawned again closing her eyes.

"Umm, ok." Rosmerta looked at her oddly and took the glass for herself, sharing weird looks with everyone else. "Thanks Essie, you can go back down now. Anyway, where were we? Oh yes, no driver. How did you get off the train then?"

"Oh we jumped!" Exclaimed Lucy excitedly, "It was so fun!"

"Jumped? Oh my goodness! You could've died!"

"Oh, pshhhh! We're fine, besides, it wasn't going that fast." Hugo waved her off nonchalantly.

"Well, except for when I-" Rose began irritatedly before hugs palm came to rest tightly over her mouth.

"Yep were all good!" He smiled cheekily at the older woman.

"Aaannyway," Molly continued their tale "after that we ran all the way to Hogwarts in that torrential downpour and tried to get their attention or find a way in... That didn't really work in our favour. We convinced James to come here when the storm started."

"So we've basically been stood outside for the past 2 and a half hours!" Lily finally chipped in slightly grumpily and Rosmerta smiled warmly, she had always had a soft spot for the Potters, well, that was before she actually took in what she had said.

"2 and half hours? And in this storm too! You should've come sooner, no wonder that poor girl looks like an icicle!" She exclaimed pointing at Evelyn who was now asleep under James's arm. "Who is she anyway? I'm sure I've never seen her in my life."

"An American transfer student, originally from Ireland. Today was supposed to be her first day." Fred yawned sleepily.

"Her names Evvy!" James interrupted, smiling down at her.

"You're being a creep James, you've only just met her, I'm sure she's extremely uncomfortable with the amount of attention you're giving her." Molly spoke very matter of factly before rolling her eyes "and her name isn't 'Evvy', that's just the stupid nickname you've given her, her real names Evelyn." She turned to the kind old barkeeper in front of them.

"Only just met her you say? As in today? Dear merlin boy! You look as though you're in love with her already... I do suppose you would make quite the cute couple though, she's very pretty too." She winked

"Yeah right." James grumpily, "anyway, is there any way to get back to school?"

"Not really, it's too dangerous to be out in this storm. And too dangerous to send an owl out too!"

"I can do a patronus" offered Louis, "we can use that to send the message."

"Sounds good, come on." She dragged him to the window to perform the spell as the rest of them got up, deciding to sort out sleeping arrangements, and as soon as everyone was tucked up in bed, well, with the exception of James who was still sat up against the headboard on top of the covers with evelyn still nestled against his side under a mound of blankets, as soon as everybody's heads had hit the pillow they fell to sleep instantly. Rosmerta smiled and silently left the room and from then on, all that could be heard was the soft snores of the 10 Hogwarts students.

At 6.00 the next morning there was a loud knock at the door and just as everyone started wake up, groaning and grumbling the door flew open and there stood McGonnagal, her face half stern and half amused. "Good morning, you lot. We need to get back to Hogwarts as soon as possible." She pointed her wand at the curtains and they opened, letting an extremely bright morning light into the room. Everyone squeezed their eyes tightly shut, grumbling even louder, with the exception of people like rose and molly who were early risers and Evelyn who was still asleep. McGonnagal looked questioningly at her as everybody else rolled out of bed, stretching and yawning as they pulled their still damp robes on.

"She sleeps like the dead, we had to use rennervate yesterday." James told her, noticing the look "and that was when she was having a bad dream and was about to wake up anyway."

"Rennervate." The professor murmured in her Scottish accent. Evelyn, however, made no move to wake up and just shifted slightly in her sleep, mcgonnagals expression changed into one of utter shock. "That spell could revive somebody from a coma!" Auguamenti also did nothing, wingardium leviosa didn't work, hell even the tickling charm didn't. "This girl... Nevermind, who can carry her?"

"I will!" James offered immediately. Everyone gave him a pointed look but he dint notice because he had already turned away and was starting to wrap evelyn back into her dry robes. Once they were all ready, they began the long trek back to Hogwarts, trudging with great exhaustion through the soggy ground. It was still drizzling a little bit but no one could bring themselves to care, too preoccupied with trying not to lose their shoes in the mud. With great exhaustion they finally fell against the heavy wooden doors of the school and entered.

"Ok, into the great hall everyone, I'll ask the house elves to serve breakfast early." McGonnagal said quietly through huge breaths, clutching her chest in exhaustion.

"House elves?" Fred feigned shock, "you keep house elves here?"

"Oh I know all of you have found the kitchens, Mr Weasley, no use trying to fool me now." She raised her eyebrows sternly at him and he just grinned at her. "Now, luckily I decided to visit her before she started and sort her then." She gestured half heartedly to Evelyn "I'm sure you'll all be pleased to hear she's in Gryffindor." A resounding cry of jubilation came from the group of teenagers as they all sat down at the empty Gryffindor table. James propped Evelyn up against his shoulder before grabbing his knife and fork and eagerly awaiting the food. As as if the elves had read his thoughts, it arrived, huge mounds of it spread out in front of them. It seemed to glow in an almost heavenly fashion, steam wafted up from it and filled the whole hall up with mouthwatering smells.

Evelyn's eyes suddenly snapped open and she shot up, looking around greedily. "Food" she whispered before grabbing handfuls from each dish and piled her plate high.

"Morning!" Everyone greeted her, laughing and helping themselves to their own meals.

"So you wake up, with food?" James puzzled.

"Ummm, yeah." She said quietly with a mouthful of food "mostly, and if I'm in imminent danger, like drowning, I suppose." And she turned back to her bacon wrapped scrambled egg pockets.

"So I carried you all the way here, not that you were heavy or anything, I mean look at the size of you. But I carried you and we could've just stuck a plate of bacon under your nose?"

"Oh, I was wondering how I got here. And yes I suppose so."

"Well, we know for the future." Lily said. "Anyway, here come the other students. Be prepared for attention Evvs." She gestured towards the door where the couple of students entering the hall soon turned into steady stream. Great, thought Evelyn, time to meet the rest of the school.


	4. Chapter 4

**Right, I know I don't usually do these, but before we start, I just want tho thank a very lovely reviewer for their kind message. Now since they were a guest I can't reply to them in person which is really disappointing. So if you are reading this, which I hope you are, thank you so much and I tried to get this chapter out as soon as possible. Anyway, I'll leave everyone to it, here's the chapter!**

Evelyn's point of view (Oh yes, I forgot to ask, do you all prefer a first person point of view or a third person? I can't make up my mind!) :

Everybody, just as Lily predicted, stared. And when I say everyone, I mean everyone... Well, apart from a few snooty looking people, some with green ties and some with blue. They just looked down at their breakfast, possibly a bit annoyed that it was so early, possibly just too absorbed in themselves to notice anyone. Oh that was such a horrible thing to say, why did I just think that? Saying a silent sorry in my head, I turned back to my breakfast only to be interrupted with a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see a boy about rose's age who looked uncannily like Mr potter and was clearly related to James and Lily. This must've been Albus.

"Hi, what's your name?" He spoke kindly, holding his hand out politely.

"Hey al! This is Evelyn, I think dad must've told you about her before you got on the train. Evvy this is my brother Albus." James started the introductions, unable to keep his mouth shut for more than a few seconds apparently.

I looked up at the brother and smiled, taking his hand reluctantly. My heart jumped about with nervousness inside my chest. Damn my social awkwardness to the pits of hell and burn it like a piece of charred toast. "Nice to meet you" I whispered as loud as I could, trying desperately not to stammer.

"You too," Albus smiled warmly "just call me Al, this is Scorpius Malfoy, my best friend." By unspoken agreement me and Scorpius decided that talking just wasn't for us and nodded at each other in greeting and both of them went to sit down in an empty spot just slightly along the table. If either of the had noticed we weren't in proper Hogwarts attire they didn't say anything, in fact, I was surprised nobody had. But I didn't care that nobody had noticed, I was sick of being in these clothes. I had been in them for more than a whole day now and they were making me feel filthy and disgusting. I really needed a shower.

"Hey, James?" I murmured, nudging his arm with my small balled up fist.

"Yeah?" He spoke through a mouthful of chewed up food which made my stomach churn and twist and my nose wrinkle up in complete disgust. James had the decency to look ashamed and quickly swallowed before apologising.

"When can I change? Out of these clothes I mean."

"Oh, the teachers should be bringing round the timetables in a bit, we should have a bit of time before our lessons, considering how early it is." He finally stopped eating after sending her discomfort and turned around to face me. "Eat the rest of that," he pointed to my half finished plate "don't let everyone staring get at you, besides, it'll be a while till lunch."

"I shouldn't think that would stop you from getting food, would it James?" Came a male voice from us them. We swivelled round in our seats to see a man, roughly the same age as James' dad, with a friendly face and an amused smile. He wore a knitted cardigan and in his hands, he clutched a stack of A5 pieces of parchment.

"Neville!" James beamed up at him "Have you got our timetables there?" He eyed the stack in his arms.

"Yes, I see you're carrying on with my class, that's brilliant. Now I assume you're aware that you haven't got the marks you needed to carry on with divination, you too mr Weasley-Fred, so we will unfortunately have to take that off of your timetable, along with history of magic and astronomy." At this James and Freddie grinned at each other and high fived in some odd sort of jubilation. I was concerned, why did they think

it was a good thing to fail a class? "I must admit, I was quite surprised at how well you did in potions, boys, how did you do it? I heard professor Slughorn was on his last legs before the holidays."

"We never claimed we were bad at potions, we just didn't want to show off our brilliance and settled for wreaking havoc instead!" Freddie shot back, grinning impishly. James laughed along heartily.

"Yes, well, Slughorn agreed after some persuasion to let you back into his class, though I really am surprised the old bugger didn't have a heart attack after McGonnagal told him. Only under the condition that you join the slug club though... Sorry boys." The so called 'neville' said sarcastically before rooting through the pile. "So here are your timetables, James, Freddie, they're pretty similar, though Fred, you didn't get what you needed in Herbology so I'm afraid I can't take you, I'm sorry." He handed each of them a timetable and they rushed to compare them, seeing what classes the had together. "Ok, so the rest of your timetables didn't need much changing, right, so here's yours Molly, Louis." He handed them theirs. "Good luck this year. Now we've got rose, Hugo, lucy, Lily aaaaaand Roxy. Here's your timetables." They took theirs and poured over them, scrutinising every last detail. "And you must be evelyn right." The man asked me.

"Yes... Ummm sir?" I wondered what I should call him, I mean he was obviously a teacher but the rest of them just treated him like a friend.

"Ahhh wonderful, just call me Neville, the rest of these lot do. But I think you should stick with professor for the other teachers... Anyway, welcome to Hogwarts. I appreciate that your arrival is a bit out of the norm which is why myself and professor McGonnagal have agreed to give anyone who was involved in the... Incident this day off to settle in." There was a chorus of exited 'yeah's' from our group before nevill started speaking again. "Now I understand the headmistress has given you a letter with your course options, which ones would you like to take?" I had thought a lot about this.

"Ummm, I understand it is compulsory for me to do the basic syllabus, defence, transfiguration and all that but would it be ok to miss out on astronomy and history of magic?" I asked him.

"Of course," he changed something on her timetable "now you have 5 subjects, herbology, charms, transfiguration, defence and potions. We want students to take at least 7 subjects at newt level so which two extras would you like to do?"

"Umm, can I do care of magical creatures and... Ancient runes maybe?"

"That will be... Fine." He finished messing with the timetable and finally handed over. I thanked him as he did so and he smiled kindly back at me. "Now, I hope you settle in nicely. I'm sure one of this bunch will be happy to show you around. Yes, that's what you can do today. I want you to show evelyn around the castle, make sure she knows where her lessons and the common room are. May I suggest you take a trip down to Hagrid's? He was quite worried when you didn't show up yesterday, we all were. Great work on that patronus Louis. Anyway, welcome back to Hogwarts you lot, and just so you know, professor McGonagall will be having a chat with Mr McLaggen and miss Goyle. Ignoring you last night on the train was out of order." He smiled once more before walking off to hand out more timetables.

"Ahhhh, old Neville. Great fun, he is, I wouldn't get on the wrong side of him though. He's like a dog, all lovable and cuddly until you piss him off. Then you get the vicious bite." James told me before standing up and hauling me out of my seat. "Come on gang! Let's go give Evvy the tour of a lifetime!" and with that, James skipped out of the great hall. The only people who stood up were Fred and Lily, the rest stayed seated, still eating. With a shrug the three of us followed James out. At a walk.

* * *

A while later I found myself faced with a huge portrait of a sleeping lady dressed in pink. I had just been faced with some of the weirdest things I had ever seen. And being a witch, that was saying something. Moving staircases, a kitchen full of elves, a kooky old knight called Sir Cadgoan, who had 'escorted' us 'heroically' up to the seventh floor riding on his tubby pony. I had even seen ghosts, which was quite a shock since I had previously thought they were only bedtime stories.

"Pauline! Pauly, my lovely common room guarding painted woman! Wake up, I'm back!" James called. The woman's eyes snapped open at once and her face broke into a big beaming smile. Something told me this didn't happen very much and this made me happy for some reason.

"James potter!" She cried shrilly "just where were you last night?" The woman looked slightly worried about him but also pleased to see him.

"Well, Pauly, we got shut out of the castle. You see, we all fell asleep on the train and instead of waking us up, the head boy and girl ignored us all and we missed the carriages. That's hardly fair is it?" James layer on the self pity, clearly wanting to get this head boy and girl in trouble. I guess it worked because the next minute the lady replied.

"Not at all! I shall have to speak with Mr McLaggen about this. In fact, I should talk to the headmistress about getting his head boy status removed." She huffed quite passionately. "Now I suppose you haven't been given the password?" We all shook our heads. "Ok it's- wait, who is this?" She narrowed her eyes at me.

"Oh, this is Evvy. She's a new student, she's been put into Gryffindor." Lily told Pauline.

The painting continued to glare suspiciously at me. "I was given a name in the holidays. I want your full name, just to be certain." Wow this painting was uptight. No, not uptight, protective. She's protecting the people inside, I should be nicer about it.

"Evelyn Emilia Poppy Fraser-Reiche. Daughter of Penny Sawyer and... " I hesitated, not wanting to say his name. "Nathaniel Fraser-Reiche" I huffed. I also decided not to mention Corey and Ethan. It was... Too painful and - no. I couldn't think about it, I wouldn't think about it.

The fat lady beamed at me. "Welcome to Gryffindor. Ok you lot, the current password is hinky punk." And with that the portrait opened, revealing a tunnel that went into a large room full of bright, cheery colours, comfy looking chairs and sofas, the odd few tables and a large roaring fire. On the walls hung Gryffindor banners, portraits, tapestries and a few bulletin boards already full of notices. It was gorgeous and homely, I would happily spend my whole time at Hogwarts in this room.

"This is the common room, most of us spend... A lot of time here, probably more than we should. Anyway, if you go through here," James led them up to an alcove in the wall where she looked up and saw two sets of long, winding staircases "these are the stairs to the dormitory rooms. The boys rooms are on the left and the girls' rooms are on the right. The rooms for the older you are, the higher up you have to go to get to your room, of course the room gets better each year. There should be signs on the doors though, all our stuff should already be on our beds. We'll meet you back down here in 45 minutes." And then he ran off up the stairs, Fred right on his heels. Lily grabbed my arm next and dragged me up the girls staircase.

"Ok" she grinned "so these stairs are really cool, whenever a boy tries to get up them they turn into a really slippery slide so they can't. Anyway, this is my room and I really want a shower before the others come up so just go up and yours will be on the sixth level, just count the doors. See you in a bit." She waved before stepping in and I carried on up the stairs. By the time I was at the top though I was seriously out of breath, I may be slim but I'm certainly not fit. I had inherited my fathers high metabolism, the only good thing I had got from him. No, said I wouldn't think about it. But the point still stands, I was horribly, hilariously unfit. That was why, when I got to the sixth years dorm, i flopped down on the floor and hugged it. After the 7 minutes it took me to get my breath back I stood up and looked around.

The dorm was decorated similarly to the common room, but instead of a fireplace, In the centre of the huge circular room stood a copper coloured log burner. Placed evenly against the wall, around the burner stood six, plush, four poster beds. They even had curtains! Between every two beds was a very large window and between the others was a wardrobe. Upon opening them however I found upon opening one of the doors that they were in fact rather large walk in closets. I quickly shut the door once I saw a few items of other people's stuff in there and decided to look for my own things.

I soon found my trunk under the bed the second furthest to the right and took off my filthy trainers, kicking under the bed. I noticed a door on the far right and opened it to find the bathroom. Perfect. I dragged my trunk out from under my bed and got a change of clothes and my towel. I also got out a lime scented solid shampoo block and my raspberry scented shower gel and went and hopped in the shower, letting the hot water wash away all the grime and dirt.

I must have been in there for a good 10 minutes, having to wash my hair twice to get the mud out, so when I emerged from the bathroom I was met with a bunch of unfamiliar faces. Immediately shying away after seeing there were five of them I almost tripped over my own feet but one of them caught me and grinned happily.

"Well that could have been a disaster!" She shouted before quietening down "I've done that before, that floor really hurts you know anyway what's your name? I mean we came in last night and there was an extra bed so I was like why is there an extra bed and then Nina was like I don't know and then everyone else was like I don't know so we were wondering about it until your trunk appeared and I wanted to look in it, you know to see if it was buried treasure or anything" the girl stopped talking to take a huge breath before carrying on "but no one let me. Aaaaaaanyway, Anya was like she must be new, see Anya's quite smart, so then we were all like ooooooooohhhhhh so then we went sleep but then we had to wake up early because breakfast was being served early and then we all saw you and I was like that must be the girl who's supposed to be in our dorm and I was right! Can you believe it? So then we stared at you until you got up to leave with James and stuff and now Kat doesn't like you because she said you looked suspicious but she's just jealous because James has never payed her any attention but we can't all win can we? Anyway I'm Sienna who are you?" The girl looked at me expectantly.

Never had I seen ANYONE talk so much, how did she even find time to breathe? For a while I was speechless, I just looked at her in shock before finally smiling weakly. "I'm Evelyn." The girl just grinned even wider, which scared me. She seemed really energetic and really friendly, to the point of being overly so. Something told me though, that she had problems with keeping her mouth shut as one girl was glaring at her near the back of the bunch. She was fairly pretty, tanned with wavy, honey blonde hair cut into a messy, long bob with quite a low side parting and a flippy sort of fringe tucked behind her ear. Her eyes were a sparkling grey-green, brought out by her mascara and winged eyeliner. She didn't seem to be wearing much else make up wise though. Her ears were pierced, I noticed, on her left ear she had three lobe piercings and four little studs in her cartilage and on her right ear she just had two lobe piercings. She seemed like she might be in to fashion but for the minute she just stood in her school robes with the other girls.

"Nice to meet you! I'm sienna Rhodes. This is Nina, Anya, Katerina and Meghan, or Meg." Nina was quite tall and pale, she had stunning ice blue eyes framed with enormous lashes and thick, dark eyebrows. Her hair was lilac, currently held up in a messy bun. I'm pretty sure she was a metamorphagus, but it didn't look like she used it anywhere but her hair. Anya stood next to Nina, they were obviously good friends. She had dark brown, glossy, pin straight hair that she had put up in a high ponytail and even then it reached her mid back, a side fringe fell across half her face, covering part of her hair. Her eyes were a rich, chocolate colour, brought out by her warm golden eyeshadow. She wasn't wearing much else makeup wise except mascara and foundation to cover up some spots. I knew how to make something to get rid of them, I would have ask her about that.

Sienna, Anya and Nina all looked super friendly, but when I looked across to Meghan and Katerina I was met with hostile glares. Both of them had full faces of makeup and their hair had obviously been dyed because I could see their roots. Now I'm not judging them by it, people are completely entitled to do what they want, I don't care either way it's what's on the inside that really counts, as cliché as that sounds. Anyway, Meg had black hair that was just below her shoulders, wildly curly and looked slightly fried at the ends. Her eyes were a dark blue but were hidden underneath an eyelid full of eyeliner and about a whole bottle of mascara and her lips were painted ruby red. Katerina was the same but had platinum blonde frizzy hair, caramel brown eyes and hot pink lips. And they were still glaring at me.

"Umm it's lovely to meet you all," I told everyone sincerely "nobody needed the bathroom did they? Sorry if you did." I asked, worried that I had been in there too long. Sienna, Anya and Nina all laughed kindly, shaking their heads, the other two continued to glare. Meghan was the first to speak.

"And what if we did? You come storming in like you own the place, look at you! You've just made yourself right at home after not even bothering to turn up last night without even wanting to know us. Well listen here princess, you're not above us, you can't just turn up whenever you want, you can't just decide you don't want to know us and don't even think about heading over to our side of the room because if you do I'll know about it! James might have fallen straight into your trap, but despite your oh so pretty hair and your super expensive clothes I will not!" She then stormed off to her bedside table, grabbed a bag and stomped out of the dorm, Katerina close on her heels after shooting me one last dirty look. For a while the four of us left stood there in shock. I was a bit upset actually, as far as I was aware I hadn't done anything wrong. I put it down to her being a bit tired.

"She's not usually like that." Anya told me sympathetically, looking at me with sorrowful eyes. Nina, however, took the blunter approach. She seemed like quite a blunt person in general.

"No no no, she's a huge bitch, don't deny it. She's a complete cow, plus she actually likes using her fathers fame to get her own way." She drawled, looking at Anya in a weird way. Her voice was quite sarcastic sounding but she still seemed like an incredibly nice person.

"Oh oh yeah!" Sienna was off again. "Meg's the daughter of Oliver Wood, you know, the quidditch player!" I didn't but I let her carry on none the less "anyway, she really likes flaunting it and she can be quite a... She can be quite mean but I'm going to stop talking now. Hey! Let's unpack your stuff!"

"Ummm, Si? Don't classes start in a bit, shouldn't we get going?" Anya queried looking a bit worried "What about you evelyn? Have you got all your stuff?"

"Oh!" I realised they didn't know what happened last night "Professor... Umm, McGonnagal that's it! Professor McGonnagal gave me and everyone that was with me yesterday the day off to settle in. No one woke us up on the train yesterday and they shut the gates before we got there so we couldn't get in. We stayed at the three broomsticks I think it was called."

"Oh, everyone did wonder why you lot weren't here. James' fangirls were distraught!" Nina grinned sardonically, rolling her eyes.

"So it's settled! You two can go to all your classes. I'll take the day off to help Ev unpack. Just tell the teachers I refused to come today, I might be ill." Sienna cried dramatically.

Nina raised her eyebrow "I think you'd know if you were ill."

"Well... Yeah. Go on then, you'll be late if you dawdle." She then went to her bed, the one closest to the bathroom, dug some clothes out of her huge trunk and disappeared into the bathroom.

"She will never change" Anya huffed. Nina noticed my puzzled look.

"Sienna takes any chance she can get to skip her classes, especially after holidays or weekends." She suddenly raised her voice "Strangely she still manages to pass though, isn't that right you lazy cow!"

A laugh came from the bathroom followed by "Of course it is, Dipshit!" Nina and Anya laughed.

"She is right though, we'll be late if we don't hurry up. We'll see you at dinner yeah?" I nodded and they left. Soon afterwards, Sienna emerged from the bathroom.

"Oh, they've gone? Sucks for them. What're you planning on doing in our luxurious time off?" She grinned mischievously.

"Oh I don't know, Lily, James and Fred wanted me to meet them back down there in half an hour."

"I'll come with you then! Fred adores me for some reason... He used to be into Kat but then... You know, she became a tangerine with a stick up her arse. Not that it matters, I don't like him in that way, he's too annoying... Anyway what to do in 30 minutes... What to do... Oh, I know! Let's unpack, we're sharing a wardrobe!" And with that she bounded off to empty her trunk, me following behind hesitantly.

* * *

A while later the wardrobe was bursting with our combined clothes, hers took up well over half of it and mine filled the rest of the space. In the time it took for us to put our stuff away, we learnt quite a bit from each other and found out we didn't have much in common apart from our love of clothes and food. But we couldn't be getting on better if we tried, opposites really do attract. She had accepted me into her short list of best friends and for that I couldn't have been more grateful. I would have been happy to stay up there all day with her but it was time to go and meet the others.

Looking at the weather from the window I saw that it was still incredibly windy and still raining slightly. I huffed in irritation before entering the walk in wardrobe and sifting through a rack of coats, eventually I chose a huge khaki green parka, shrugged it on, and wrapped a thick fluffy white scarf tightly around my neck. I put on my black timberland boots and tied up my wild hair into a haphazard low bun on my head. Deciding I was ready I turned to Sienna to find her ready but just adding a few finishing touches to her makeup.

"You ready?" I asked once she put her makeup bag back down.

"Yep! But... You're not. Why haven't you done your face up yet?" I was utterly confused.

"My face?"

"Yeah. Where's your makeup? I could've sworn you were wearing it this morning at breakfast."

"Noo... I don't wear makeup." As a matter of fact I hated it. I had tried wearing some in my first year at Salem, my face had just felt heavy and filthy and looked completely fake, now remember this was done with the deft hands of an eleven year old so of course it was done badly, but I had just hated it ever since.

"But from a distance I just... Never mind. You're pretty enough to get away with it."

"So are you."

"I'm not. Plus I prefer the more... Dramatic look." I took in her winged eyeliner and glittery, bronze eyeshadow and agreed. "Anyway, are we ready?"

"Yes."

"Let's go then!" She cried and we made our way down the stairs. Going down was certainly easier than going up. We entered the common room and saw James, Fred and Lily sat next to the fire, we made our way over to them and when Sienna jumped into the last remaining armchair I was left standing awkwardly to the side. Well, that was before a had shot out and grabbed my elbow, pulling me into an occupied armchair. I looked up to see James' grinning face I glared half heartedly while blushing and feeling extremely uncomfortable. This better not become a habit.

"It's a good job you're the size of a first year Evvs." James joked.

"No I'm not." I hated it wen people made fun of my height, I wasn't that short, although at 5ft 4 that could be argued but I wasn't as short as he was making me out to be. He was just really tall. He must've been a least 6ft 3 so compared to me he was giant.

"Well maybe not that short but-"

"Please stop." I whispered.

"Ok, I'm sorry." He rubbed my shoulder roughly making me laugh.

"Oh my word! James potter saying sorry? Everyone be ready, the apocalypse is upon us!" Sienna joked while looking curiously at James.

"Why hello Rhodes, how was your summer? I must say Freddie here missed you horribly."

"That I did. And may I say your beauty is the only thing I wish to lay my eyes on for the rest of my life, my heart will forever beat only for you!" Fred got down on both knees and threw his arms in the air dramatically.

"Shut up Fred." Sienna rolled her eyes. "I still won't go out with you."

"Thou hast wounded me, straight through thy heart!" He wailed clutching his chest and falling to the floor. Everybody ignored him and turned back to each other.

"So what are we doing today then?" Sienna asked rubbing her hands together excitedly.

"Well we were going to go and see Hagrid. I'm guessing you're skipping today's lessons though so I suppose you can come with us if you have to." James groaned, it sounded like he was joking though so I didn't comment on his rudeness. Well, actually, I didn't speak much at all. It wasn't like I was scared, which was usually the case in social situations, I felt quite comfortable in this group. It was just that I had nothing I wanted to say. So I sat in silence for the next half an hour, unmoving, just staring at the fire.

Everyone seemed to have forgotten I was there, deeply involved in their own conversation about the holidays, James had subconsciously put his arm around my shoulders and I was starting to feel uncomfortable and claustrophobic but I didn't want to interrupt so for a while I sat stock still. Then it got too much. All I could feel was James squished up against me on one side, the seat squished against my back, the chair arm squished against my other side. Fred lily Sienna and James were all talking at once, their voices getting louder and louder, the couloirs around me started to get brighter, I noticed the heat around me, I was warming up and my pulse was racing. I felt trapped, trapped and unable to get out. I needed to get out. I leapt out of my seat with sudden force and was met by shocked glances.

"Where's the nearest toilet?" I asked, trying to make it seem like I was desperate to go.

"Let me show you." Lily got to her feet and dragged me towards the portrait hole leaving the other three sat in shock with expressions of guilt and horror in our wake. After exiting the common room we walked around about 3 different hallways before we got to a door. "Ok it's just through there. I'm sorry we left you out, you're just so quiet."

"Oh it's fine, I'm ok really, I just really need to go" I rushed, pointing towards the door.

"Oh. Yeah! Go ahead sorry, I'll be waiting out here."

"Thanks." I told her before practically running through the door and locking myself into a cubicle. I sat down on top of the toilet lid and delved through one of my huge pockets, bringing out a MagiPod. I had a number of songs on there that I liked to listen to and usually calmed me down. I plugged both earphones in and played the first song that came on at full blast, this song just so happened to be Little Blue Book by Fictonian, one of my all time favourites. Steadily my breathing started to even out and my pulse started to slow down, my mind calming almost immediately. I then got lost in the song, listening to each lyric, each note on the piano, how the drums and guitar seemed to meld together to create a perfect rhythm and sound. As soon as it finished I pressed pause, gathered myself and stored the MagiPod back in my pocket.

"Hey what took so long? Did you apparate to Australia?" Lily joked as I emerged feeling much better.

"Oh no, I'm sorry. I have a lot of layers on."

"Oh! We were going to go see Hagrid! I totally forgot. I'll go tell them to hurry up, you wait here." I nodded at her and leant against the wall while she ran away. I still had the song in my head and so I began to absentmindedly sing along to it while I waited.

"We all cry some days... But we all will die one day, so come on try, I say..." I stopped to yawn, we hadn't got much sleep last night. "Just live by this little book, give it a healthy look, and you won't be bitter, and you won't be... Thankless no more." I was about to carry on when a voice interrupted me.

"Wow, you're a really good singer, and that's a nice song. What is it?" Asked James, coming around the corner. I shrugged not wanting to tell him.

"I don't know, I just heard it somewhere."

"Oh. Anyway. I'd like to say sorry for, you know... Forgetting you-"

"Oh no! I'm not bothered. I'm more comfortable just sitting with myself anyway."

"That's good, I'm still sorry though... But never mind, do you want to go meet my dads old friend Hagrid?"

"Hagrid?"

"He's a professor, half giant, slightly eccentric and obsessed with animals." I felt a smile stored across my face, now this was something I could look forward to.


End file.
